Lotus confident E22 nose is legal

Lotus is confident it will not face any legality issues with the nose of its new car this season.

Toro Rosso technical director James Key questioned the design ahead of this week's test in Jerez, which Lotus is not attending. The Lotus' nose is different to all the other cars launched so far and features an innovative solution with two nose tips.

Key did not say he thought the Lotus design was illegal, but said he would like clarification on the spirit of the regulations surrounding the nose. However, Lotus technical director Nick Chester is adamant his team will face no problems with the design.

"As you know we have passed all the necessary crash tests and we are very confident that our design complies with all the FIA legal requirements - we have just taken an innovative direction, and one that's different to the other teams," Chester said. "Where there are so many variations in design, there is always bound to be a little talk, but we remain relaxed and focussed on our design and progression."

Chester said Lotus was watching this week's test with interest despite not being physically present at Jerez.

"As we can see there are plenty of different solutions out there as we expected there would be with such a radical change of regulations," he added. "There appears to be some elegant solutions and others that certainly don't look as nice! We're very happy with the direction we have taken and it will be very interesting to see how the cars perform once we get a proper chance to compare them on track.

"It's always interesting to see what solutions the other teams have. Obviously you can't see under the skin of the cars easily where the majority of the design work takes place, but it's always interesting to see the various aero packaging on the other cars. We'll look at the different bodywork options they're running and there's always a few things to pick up on what they are pursuing."